I’ve been blogging for over 4 years now and, while I’m far from an expert, here’s a few things I’ve learned.
1) Get rid of Captcha.
Those little letters that people have to type in before commenting? The majority of people will simply not comment when faced with captcha. Instead of preventing spam, you may be inadvertently preventing comments!
I used to have Captcha enabled on my old blogger blog and then wondered why no one commented. But have you ever tried it? Captcha is a pain! And here’s the thing: it’s unlikely that it really is preventing spam comments. When I turned captcha off, guess what? No spam! Now if you do get a lot of spam, then you can choose to moderate comments (meaning you, the blogger, have to approve them before they are posted.) But don’t make your blog readers moderate for you with captcha.
2) Turn off WordPress comment “options”
Don’t punish your readers if their comment is “too short” by refusing to publish it. (You may not even realize your blog does this!) I’ve been to blogs where I wanted to comment with a quick “thank you” only to have it rejected for being too short! WHAT?! Well fine, then I won’t thank you!
The other thing: If you use comments for entering giveaways on your blog, please make sure the “commenting too fast” spam filter is off. This annoying feature where a reader is forced to wait 10 seconds or so between commenting is one of the quickest ways to turn away readers from entering your giveaways. Who has time for that?
3) Don’t let your design, color, and/or font overpower your blog
I like cutesy things so I’ve struggled with this one myself. But the simple truth is – if your blog isn’t easy to read, people will not read it. They will move on. If the font is too fancy and hard to read (I see blogs with this every day), it’s not going to encourage loyal readers. Neither will dark backgrounds with white fonts (headache anyone?)
4) Don’t clutter your blog with too many things on the homepage.
I know you want everyone to see the important things, but if it’s too overwhelming, people will skip it all. I have been on so many blogs where there are a thousand buttons and links. It’s not attractive. It looks messy and confusing.
This is something I am constantly evaluating on my own blog; it’s a fine balance between too much and too little. And everyone will have a different opinion too. So do what you want, but think about erring on the side of too little vs too much.
5) Giveaway bloggers: don’t make the mandatory entry too complicated.
You will get a lot more entries if it’s something simple. Asking readers to follow you with Google Friend Connect, like a sponsor’s Facebook page and then visit the sponsor’s page to find your favorite product and write it on their Facebook page is TOO.MUCH! Or better yet don’t have a mandatory entry at all. I rarely do mandatory entries anymore unless a sponsor has specifically requested it and I get more entries than ever.
In conclusion: I don’t pretend to be an expert. There are many others who know so much more about blogging than I do. But I do know how it feels to be a mom blogger wanting to share your little part of the world and not really sure how to go about doing it. I’ve come pretty far, but I have even farther to go. But it’s fun to share a few things I have learned.
About Erika
Twitter: janetsathome
says:
Thank you for the reminders!
KINGDOM BLESSINGS,
Janet
Thanks for reading!
Erika recently posted..5 Tips For Improving Your Blog
GreAt tips! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Erika, I’m a newbie and that just the things that I dislike. Thank you
I’m glad to hear it! Thank you!
Erika recently posted..Designers Nursery $100 Gift Certificate Giveaway
great tips! thank you!
courtney recently posted..Chandelier or Fan?
I agree with most of your points excluding no.1. I still prefer CAPTCHA because you know spammers are everywhere and the suspicious or malicious URL they came from could not be detected manually or even if you can it’s totally a waste of time. If you got a spam comment, then Google detects your blog as spam too. Thus, it will lower your pagerank if you got any. Google automatically does the filtering job for you. Why refuse it?
Im totally in agreement with Captcha, its jus annoying, I honestly cant read a lot of them and find it really annoying, when you have typed in it 3 times and is still telling you its wrong so you try to listen to the audio one and it tells you that you need a plugin to listen – it is all a little flustrating!
Keep them off!
Lessa recently posted..How to recover lost data without paying an expert of buying software
Twitter: mummytocharis
says:
Thanks for the tips. When I first started blogging, the I erred by picking a cute font, but it was not very readable. Unfortunately, I did not realize because I did not look at my blog and read the entries. So, I would also suggest that bloggers preview the entry before it’s published.
Oh I can’t stand blogs with dark backgrounds and weird color type!!! And Captcha really is so annoying especially when trying to enter a giveaway!
Saph recently posted..Ten Percent Cash Back For In-Store Shopping Through Endorse
Great tips! Does anyone hate CAPTCHAs as much as me? NOPE, it’s not possible!
I didn’t know that about WordPress comment options and having comments too short. I’m going to go and check my setting now – thank you!
Ella recently posted..Dealing with clutter: decluttering, home organization, storage solutions and tips
Very good points! Especially the captcha.. If I see it or get it wrong, I dont even bother with a comment
Elizabeth Owens recently posted..Giveaway and Review: Peter Pauper Press Pink Journal
Twitter: myllls
says:
Thanks for these great tips, we can always use them to help build our awareness. Have a great week, Karren
Karren Haller recently posted..Enter The What Women Wants Giveaway Free
AMEN to all this! I turned captcha off on my other blogger blogs long ago and I MIGHT get 1-2 spam comments a year that are easily deleted. I don’t even moderate b/c so few comments are spam! Love all the other tips too!
JulieK recently posted..Tot Explorations: Word Play with Magnetic Poetry ~ Giveaway